There is a pressing need to improve the quality of glassware, according to the firm, citing clinical studies which suggest that chemicals released from a glass vial may influence the effectiveness of pharmaceuticals. The European Pharmacopoeia has recognised this and recommends that each glass container should come under stringent quality control, even though this is not feasible using current technologies.
The quality issues that matter - minimal size variations, enhanced mechanical strength and shock resistance, minimal chemical release and an absence of visual defects - have to be addressed by glass tubing converters. SPAMI makes plants for these companies, and hopes that its new process could replace the traditional manufacturing approaches that have changed very little over the last 30 years.
SPAMI claims that its protoype glass converter machine can produce vials of high quality, even from low- or medium-quality glass tubing.
This removes one of the primary obstacles to updating manufacturing processes, the firm believes. The main glass tubing producers are very large multinational companies that are unwilling to spend money on updating their manufacturing practices, and their position in the supply chain is too strong to be sensitive to request coming from the converter industry.
SPAMI's system is based on a number of quality control technologies that allow screening of the glass tubing on arrival at the plant (which often fails to meet converter specifications), as well as the final product.
Features include a visual inspection system (NoVIS), a system for continuous temperature measurement, and a new digital image processing system, called CLEANER, which can detect and remove defects as small as a few hundredths of a millimetre in the final product.
The integrated machine provides measurement of glass tube diameter, wall thickness, and temperature using infrared pyrometers, and motorised burners provide close control of their positioning. More details of the system can be seen on the company's website.
SPAMI has been operating its prototype for just over a year, and says it is seeing significant improvements in vial production quality which should answer the demands of pharmaceutical manufacturers coping with the requirements of regulators around the world.